Elizabeth I - Hardcover

MacCaffrey, Wallace T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 034056167X ISBN 13: 9780340561676

Publisher: Hodder Arnold, 1993

Synopsis

In this biography of Elizabeth I, the author focuses on Elizabeth's career as a practising politician, taking into account her testing personal experience, her temperament and her own view of her role. The book also provides an understanding of the private persona of Elizabeth Tudor.

About this title

Review:

...surely the most important [biography] since Neale's appeared nearly sixty years ago...gives us a persuasive picture of the queen, sympathetic but wholly without hagiography? (History)

Now at last it [Sir John Neale's 1934 biography of Elizabeth I] faces an academic challenge. (The Times Higher Education Supplement)

The strength of Professor MacCaffrey's treatment lies in the clarity with which he presents the portrait of Elizabeth as policy maker, and her strengths and weaknesses in that capacity. As a public figure his skills do justice to her role. (Archive for Reformation History)

Shrewd Judgements are numerous, and the narrative incorporates subtle analyses of events, personalities, and the relationships between them. (Journal of Modern History)

From the Back Cover:

Completing his major analysis of Elizabethan high politics with this eagerly awaited third volume, Wallace MacCaffrey investigates how Elizabeth I, the unwarlike war leader", and her ministers made the great decisions that shaped English political history in the years between the Armada of 1588 and her death in 1603. As in the previous volumes, the author examines the ramifications of selected themes, such as the Queen's reluctant entry into war with Spain, the integration of Ireland into the English imperial system, and the threat of renewed political faction with the appearance of a new favorite at court, the Earl of Essex. Throughout, MacCaffrey reveals the intentions, motivations, and assumptions that guided Elizabeth's strategy in a struggle fought on many fronts: on the high seas, in the West Indies, on the European continent, and in Ireland. In light of the Queen's desire to uphold her popularity through the maintenance of peace and prosperity, the author explains why she pursued war with Spain by only half-measures and how the brutal conquest of Ulster and the destruction of Tyrone came to be seen as prerequisites for the incorporation of Northern Ireland. A lively narrative outlines international circumstances as perceived by the policy makers, exposing the preconceptions and limited knowledge behind decisions that ultimately worked to England's advantage.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Arnold
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 034056167X
• ISBN 13: 9780340561676
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448